


Lock & Key

by EarthToQuinne



Category: The Umbrella Academy (TV)
Genre: AU, Crossdressing, Fluff, Gay Antics, Gen, LGBTQ Character, LGBTQ Themes, Sibling Bonding, slumber parties
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-05-07
Updated: 2019-05-07
Packaged: 2020-02-27 15:42:16
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,676
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18742048
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/EarthToQuinne/pseuds/EarthToQuinne
Summary: Allison catches Klaus stealing her clothes and is not happy about it.





	Lock & Key

The first time one of Allison’s lipsticks went missing she didn’t really think much of it. Boys were always showering her with gifts, trying to buy her affection with nice clothes, makeup, jewelry that she hardly ever used. So she had a lot of makeup and the shade that disappeared didn’t really suit her skin tone much anyways… However, it wasn’t long before Allison realized that many of her other things had mysteriously disappeared. It started with makeup, then gradually her blouses, skirts, even some of her bras.

Initially, she’d assumed it was Vanya because, hello? It’s not like there was anyone else in the house who would take them. So this what led Allison to storm into Vanya’s room one day, interrupting her practicing.

A screeching sound filled the room as Vanya pulled her bow from the string abruptly and staggered back from the door, knocking over her music stand in the process. Allison just stood in the doorway with her hands on her hips. “I know you’ve been stealing my stuff!”

Vanya just looked at her, puzzled. “What? No, I haven’t?”

“Seriously, Vanya? You’re going to tell me that half of my wardrobe and six tubes of lipstick have just mysteriously gone missing?!”

Vanya just sighed as she gently placed her violin back into its case. “Allison, I swear I didn’t take them. What use would I have for all that… frilly, _girly_ stuff anyway?”

Allison sighed in defeat. Vanya did have a point. Unlike Allison, she would rather be flayed alive than wear a dress. And this was the girl who didn’t even start parting her hair until they were thirteen! There was no way that she would take anything from Allison. Besides perhaps her fashion magazines, which Vanya definitely was not looking at for fashion advice, if her wardrobe was any indication…

“Who else would have taken them then?” Allison asked, exasperated.

Vanya raised an eyebrow at her as if her head was full of nothing more than hot air and rumors. Although Vanya was clearly the outcast among them all, she had an air of quiet confidence about her and a subtle wit that easily made the others feel incredibly dumb.

“You seriously don’t know?” she asked in that quiet, yet cutting voice of hers.

Allison crossed her arms over her chest and rolled her eyes as she cocked out a hip. “Obviously, not.”

Vanya’s teeth protruded to gnaw at the already tender flesh of her bottom lip for a moment before she answered. “So, I might know where they are… But you have to promise not to tell, okay?”

Allison just scoffed. “Whatever.”

So that’s how she ended up banging on Klaus’ door, barely managing to hear her own thoughts over the sound of the boom box turned up at full volume. She tried the handle a few times but it was clearly locked.

With a frustrated groan, she pulled a hairpin out of her hair and fell down on her knees. Diego had taught her this trick ages ago, after belittling her relentlessly for getting caught sneaking out so many times. Unsurprisingly, Allison stopped getting caught after that. She never thanked Diego for that, come to think of it… After a few minutes of poking and prodding, Allison felt the tumblers roll into place and opened the door with a flourish.

She was ready to start yelling at Klaus and accuse him of being a creepy little weirdo who was hiding her things just to mess with her. But the words died in her throat when she caught sight of her brother, wearing the short plaid skirt she’d shoplifted from a boutique in Paris, thigh-high boots, and one of Allison’s blouses. He was in the middle of applying lipstick to his mouth, a streak of it on his chin when their eyes locked in the mirror.

Her expression changed quickly from shock to outrage. “Klaus, I can’t believe you! Wearing _that_ shade of lipstick with _that_ skirt? And that blouse is _way_ too big for you! You’re literally swimming in it.”

She rushed over to him immediately and pulled a makeup wipe out of her purse, grasping his face in her hand. She wiped his face clean, while he stared at her, glassy-eyed and dumbfounded.

“Honestly, if you’re going to steal my stuff, you have to learn how to wear it right.

Klaus was in so much shock that he didn’t manage to speak for the next half an hour and just sat there wordlessly as Allison dolled him up, lining his eyes with a dark brown pencil just right, brushing the perfect amount of shimmer over his cheeks, and a dark brown shadow across his eyelids. Also, that shirt just had to go. She rummaged through a pile on the floor until she found a simple black tank top and handed it to Klaus. He put it on wordlessly as Allison admired her handiwork.

She couldn’t help but smile as she looked at his reflection in the mirror. “There, that’s better.” Klaus could only stare at himself in the mirror, amazed at how soft, how _pretty_ he looked. He didn’t say anything as he pulled Allison into a tight hug for the first time in both of their lives.

\--

Although this could have easily been a one-time thing, Allison insisted that Klaus was in desperate need of a woman’s advice if he was going to dress like one. To which Klaus insisted that he didn’t want to dress like a _woman_ , he just wanted to dress like himself, which may or may not have involved bright purple lipstick, black nail polish, and long flowy skirts sometimes… And while Klaus acted like the whole endeavor was an incredible inconvenience- he was secretly relieved. It felt liberating to let his sisters in on his little secret, to see this part of himself that was so special and so incredibly vulnerable.

Allison felt a kind of relief as well at being needed for what felt like the first time in her life. Her siblings often looked down on her and treated her like she was vapid and shallow for being more interested in shoes and lipgloss than learning about the fall of the Roman Empire. Often she felt like they talked more with each other than they ever did with her, even though they were supposed to be a team.

As the months went on, however, the closer Allison got to Klaus and Vanya the more she realized that this had been intentional. During their secret slumber parties where they would stay up all night gossiping about boys and painting each other’s nails, Allison learned more about her siblings in a few short hours than she had their entire childhood. And as the years went on, the three of them began to realize that every single one of them felt like a weirdo and an outcast, all competing against each other for their father’s attention and approval.

So they made a pact to not let themselves be divided. Although it was unspoken that first night the three kids sat on the floor of Allison’s room, admiring Klaus’ new look and whispering excitedly amongst themselves, they made a pact of understanding. And no matter how much their father tried to get them to hurt one another, they would refuse to.

The blanket fort they would build in the corner of Allison’s room, draped with fairy lights and filled with big, plush pillows became their safe haven for the majority of their teenage years. Whenever Klaus needed help picking out an outfit, or Vanya needed advice on boys (and eventually girls, much to Klaus’ delight) or any of them needed to vent, they would all huddle inside their fort and end up talking for hours.

It was there that Allison confessed that she had lost her virginity at sixteen, where Klaus came out to his sisters for the first time (although neither of them was surprised) and where Vanya also came out a few years later. Next to their gossip sessions, that were more like therapy than anything, their other favorite thing to do together was to give each other makeovers. At first, Allison mostly gave Klaus makeovers while Vanya laid on the bed and pretended that she wasn’t the slightest bit interested.

After a lot of pleading and begging Vanya to at least try wearing a little makeup or put on a skirt, Klaus eventually convinced her to let him put lipgloss on her. She’d made a gagging noise and wiped it off immediately when she saw it the mirror as her siblings laughed in the background. A few weeks later, though, she’d quietly asked Klaus to paint her nails. When he was finished, she’d stared in awe at the dark blue color, the strangest feeling fluttering in her chest as it reflected the light. Klaus and Allison just shared a knowing look. They finally had her and she would never be the same.

None of them would and it was for the better.

For most of their lives, they had never known what it felt like to be listened to, to be accepted unconditionally, to be loved. They’d never had anyone to confide in or share their secrets with. A life of loneliness, isolation, and repression had been normal. For if they were always against each other, they were easier to manipulate, easy to control. But they’d found freedom through coming together once a week, dancing to Klaus’ tapes, flipping through Allison’s magazines, or listening to Vanya read the classics- Dickens, Poe, Shakespeare- aloud to them in her calm, lilting voice.

They’d never told anyone else about these secret meetings. They didn’t share their inside jokes or how much they meant to each other. Nothing they said or did within the confidence of their inner circle left Allison’s room. And it would be a secret they held onto dearly until the trio finally left the Academy behind forever, a dismal backdrop to some of the most colorful years of their lives.

**Author's Note:**

> I.E. the AU in which Klaus, Vanya, and Allison help each other survive their teenage years. 
> 
> There aren’t a lot of non-romantic fics for this fandom so I decided to write one! I've had this idea for a while and really fell in love with the idea of the three kids bonding with each other instead of growing to resent one another. The canon causes me pain so I write fluff to ease it haha. Hope y’all like it!


End file.
